Wittnauer watche dating

The first wristwatches were essentially bracelets that told the time.In fact, the very first wristwatch, made in 1868 by Patek Philippe, was sold to a woman, Countess Koscowicz of Hungary, in 1876.You should not depend on the serial number along to determine the value of your Wittnauer watch.Never just assume that the Wittnauer watch for sale is authentic, especially if the price is too good to be true or if you are purchasing online from an unknown source without examining the watch first.The first step in identifying a Bulova watch is to ensure that the watch is a legitimate, genuine Bulova.Part of that litmus test is that the case, movement, and dial must bear one of the signatures known to have been used by Bulova, as explained in the bullets that follow.Next I typed in by hand which runs are marked with which name out of the 1896 material catalog.

Right now, everything is geared toward experienced watch collectors, but even people who know very little about watches should be able to pick out some useful facts.

The Elgin Serial Number database was created by scanning and OCR'ing the 1950 serial number list.

Then I had to go through and clean up the list by hand, changing 'O's to '0's, 'S's to '5's, and '11's to '0's etc.

Men came to wristwatches much later, around World War I. By design, ladies' wristwatches were small, which meant they generally lacked the physical space inside to support features we associate with men’s wristwatches, including chronographs and chronometers.